[117226] in Cypherpunks
Delta Force leader at Waco meeting
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Sun Aug 29 00:37:43 1999
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 06:09:20 +0200 (CEST)
Message-Id: <199908290409.GAA09931@mail.replay.com>
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Terrorist experts advised Reno
Delta Force leader at Waco meeting
Jeff Nesmith - Cox Washington Bureau
Saturday, August 28, 1999
Washington -- Army anti-terrorism specialists, including the commander of the top-secret Delta Force, attended the 1993 meeting at which Attorney General Janet Reno approved use of tear gas against members of the Branch Davidian group near Waco, Texas.
It is the first indication that the Delta Force, whose presence at the fatal raid was disclosed this week, was involved in planning the operation.
Reno has said that during that meeting, she raised numerous questions about the effect tear gas would have on members of the rebellious religious cult and, especially, their children.
The military authorities reportedly assured her that when tear gas was used against them, the Davidians would be compelled to abandon the compound in which they had holed up during a 51-day standoff with FBI agents.
Instead, 80 members of the sect, including its leader David Koresh and 20 children, died in a fire that consumed their compound. The FBI has said the fire was started by the Davidians.
Documents released to Cox Newspapers on Friday by the FBI indicate that Col. William Boykin, then Delta Force commander, and Brig. Gen. Peter Schoomaker, then the assistant division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, were the previously unidentified officers who told Reno use of CS gas, a potent form of tear gas, would make the compound "untenable."
Tear gas and the manner in which it was used at Waco have become an issue in recent days with the disclosure that what the FBI describes as "a very limited number" of military-issue pyrotechnic gas grenades were used in the final assault on the compound.
This revelation, contrary to Reno's repeated assertion during recent years, has led to renewed calls by members of Congress for committee investigations.
On Friday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) called for a Senate Judiciary Committee probe of the pyrotechnic grenades, and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) said his House Government Reform Committee would hold hearings on the matter in the fall.
Reno said Thursday she was "upset" to learn that assurances to her by the FBI that incendiary tear gas grenades were not used at Waco were untrue.
In addition to the controversy over the tear gas canisters, The Dallas Morning News reported that a "former CIA officer" had said he was told that three or four Army Special Forces troops at Waco had taken an active role in the Davidian assault.
That would be illegal under federal laws that prohibit use of military force against American civilians without a special presidential waiver.
Although it has been reported that military officers were at a meeting at which Reno was advised to approve the use of CS gas at Waco, the names of Boykin and Schoomaker were deleted from an Army memorandum describing the meeting. Both men were among the original Delta Force officers when it was established by the late Army Col. Charlie Beckwith, and both participated in the failed mission to rescue U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980.
According to the widely circulated memorandum, Special Forces members were at Waco on April 19, 1993, but strictly as observers, whose activities were within legal guidelines and had been approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The document, written May 13, nearly a month after the fiery end of the Waco standoff, was a synopsis of an April 14 meeting involving Reno, then-FBI Director William Sessions, then-Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, two Army officers, an "unknown scientist (expert on CS)" from the Army and several FBI agents.
Boykin has since been promoted to major general and given overall command of the Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. Schoomaker has been promoted to general and is commander of the multiservice Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
